News Coverage

By David Hochschild and David Olsen | San Francisco Chronicle Link to article In 1986, President Ronald Reagan famously removed solar panels from the White House roof, capping a misguided energy policy that severely slashed investment in renewable energy. Thirty-one years later, President Trump has committed a more consequential mistake by rejecting the Paris climate […]

Herman K. Trabish | Utility Dive Link to article With current clean energy goals in sight, liberal lawmakers are pushing the state to ratchet up its ambitions. But utility companies could prove a powerful roadblock. Can the world’s sixth-largest economy get to 60% renewables by 2030 and 100% renewables by 2045? California’s Senate Bill 100 […]

Ivan Penn – Contact Reporter | Los Angeles Times Link to article California energy officials are, for the first time, rethinking plans to build expensive natural gas power plants in the face of an electricity glut and growing use of cleaner and cheaper energy alternatives. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced Tuesday […]

David R. Baker | New York Times Link to article WASHINGTON — Leon G. Billings, a former aide to Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie and a key author of the Clean Air Act and other landmark environmental laws, has died. Billings, 78, died Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee, after suffering a stroke while visiting family. Born in […]

David R. Baker | SF Chronicle Link to article Just past noon on a broiling Central Valley day, the strain on California’s electrical grid is rising with the temperature. Inside the control room that runs the grid, on the outskirts of Folsom, a yellow line on a glowing wall of data squiggles steadily higher, then […]

Bill Magavern | Capitol Weekly Link to article Millions of Californians suffered from smog and smoke this summer, but help is on the way. Defying the expectations of many observers and the fierce opposition of the oil industry, the Legislature passed a historic climate protection package in August. What the late-session action showed is that […]

Ben Bradford | Capital Public Radio Link to article The California Public Utilities Commission oversees electric utilities, and also telecommunications and transportation–although perhaps not for much longer. A trio of bills moving through the state Legislature would change the commission’s responsibilities, after several high-profile controversies. Commissioners’ handling of the San Bruno pipeline explosion and […]

Carolyn Lochhead | San Francisco Chronicle Link to article Industry, scientists spar as Obama tries to fast-track Mojave wind and solar farms In its final months, the Obama administration is racing to complete a far-reaching environmental initiative that could forever alter one of the wildest places left in California. A giant energy plan for the […]

Ralph Vartabedian | LA Times/L.A. Now Link to article As California pushes forward on its ambitious goal to produce 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, it will confront a wide range of potentially troubling economic, technical and political questions — though there remains strong support among public officials for the state’s climate […]